Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger modeled Batman's stomping grounds after their own home, New York City. In fact, it was some time before the Caped Crusader shifted from dwelling in NYC to the fictional Gotham City.

Early on, there was little to distinguish Gotham from New York in terms of architecture, and Batman tended to operate in broad daylight. But over the course of several issues of Detective Comics, Gotham became a darker and more shadowy place to better suit its defender.

The shift towards darkness just as quickly reversed, however. Under artists like Dick Sprang, the Batman comics became progressively lighter and more family-friendly during the 1940's, and once again Batman and Robin tended to operate in daylight rather than the shadows.

The brighter, cheerier take on Gotham City was exemplified in the 1966 TV series, which offered a very campy take on the Dynamic Duo.

Batman '66 was filmed mainly in Hollywood studios and backlots, with Los Angeles' Bronson Canyon area being used for exterior Batcave shots. But occasionally viewers would see shots of the busy, urban Gotham City projected behind the Dynamic Duo.

It wasn't until the mid-'60s that artists like Carmine Infantino began to move the Batman comics away from the camp of the TV series and back towards its darker roots. Here we can see Gotham morphing back into a dark, eerily lit metropolis again.

As the Batman comics grew darker, so too did Gotham. In The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller directly modeled the city after the decaying, crime-ridden New York of the time.

That darker, grittier take on Gotham quickly worked its way out into the rest of DC's Batman comics, until Gotham became a cesspool of crime and corruption that seemed perpetually locked in nighttime.

Perhaps no piece of Batman lore has more profoundly shaped the look and feel of Gotham City than Batman: The Animated Series. Inspired by the classic Fleischer Superman cartoons and 1989's Batman, BTAS applied a retro-flavored, Art Deco look to Gotham's architecture and frequently gave the city's skies a surreal, crimson tone.

One of the more distinctive additions Batman: The Animated Series made to Gotham was the floating police blimps that patrol the city's skies. These blimps were one of several anachronistic elements that gave this version of Gotham a very timeless quality.

Batman: The Animated Series has heavily influenced the depiction of Gotham City in DC's contemporary Batman comics. This image from artist Jim Lee is pretty representative of the modern Gotham, one full of jagged skyscrapers, eerie lighting and those distinctive floating police blimps.

Wayne Tower is one of the major fixtures of the Gotham skyline. It's become common for artists to depict the tower in a way that both resembles a "W" and evokes the Bat symbol. It's as if Bruce Wayne is daring his city to make the connection between him and Batman.

Batman: The Animated Series also continues to influence DC's more recent Batman cartoons. This shot from Son of Batman is a good example. The architecture isn't quite so Art Deco-flavored here, but the blood red color of the sky is very BTAS-inspired.

When it comes to live-action depictions of Gotham City, none is so distinctive as the one seen in Tim Burton's Batman. This matte painting showcases the unique vision of production designer Anton Furst, who described the city as "An essay in ugliness. As if hell erupted through the pavement and kept on going."

The architecture in Batman '89 is very chaotic and foreboding, emphasizing tall, almost demonic buildings that reach far up into the sky and create a very claustrophobic sensation for those on the streets.

Though 1995's Batman Forever is a direct sequel to Burton's Batman movies, director Joel Schumacher wanted a very different interpretation of Gotham. The city took on a more 40's-inspired look, one characterized by massive statues and a pervasive neon lighting.

As Batman Begins offered a more grounded take on the Caped Crusader than previous live-action films, the look of Gotham City followed suit. This film's Gotham is basically a mash-up of Chicago, New York and Tokyo. The city's main distinguishing feature is a massive train system that ran right to the heart of the city at Wayne Tower.

Batman Begins also focused a great deal of attention on the Narrows, a particularly seedy and dilapidated section of the city. The Narrows has become a common landmark in many modern Batman comics.

Christopher Nolan's Gotham City evolved quite a bit in The Dark Knight. With much of the filming taking place in Chicago, Gotham became a much more straightforward urban metropolis. Many iconic Chicago landmarks can be spotted during the course of the film.

Nolan's Gotham evolved again in The Dark Knight Rises, reflecting the fact that production largely took place in Pittsburgh. The city's distinctive waterfront was plainly visible in many key scenes as Bane's men took control of the bridges leading in and out of Gotham.

Over the past couple decades, Catwoman has carved out her own territory in Gotham's East End. This section of the city tends to have a more residential, blue collar quality to it.

In the Batman: Zero Year storyline, artist Greg Capullo rendered a Gotham that had become crippled by an attack by Riddler. After several months without power, the city rapidly became an overgrown urban jungle bathed in sunlight rather than shadow.

The comic series Gotham Central explored the city from the perspective of ordinary police officers. Appropriately, Gotham took on a very shadowy, noir-flavored vibe that was both more grounded and more unsettling than the norm.

Writer Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette explored the very earliest days of Gotham when they introduced the prehistoric, bat-worshiping Miagani tribe in Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. Is a Gotham without buildings still Gotham?

Building on the work done in Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, artist Moritat established the look of the late-19th Century Gotham City in All-Star Western. During this period, Gotham was very Victorian in look and perpetually shrouded in a haze of pollution.

Gotham City got an even bigger Victorian England-style makeover in Gotham by Gaslight, an alternate universe story which featured a Steampunk Batman battling Jack the Ripper.

Batman: The Animated Series' Gotham City got a huge makeover in Batman Beyond. In this futuristic setting, the city became Neo-Gotham, a Blade Runner-esque city full of bright lights, sleek skyscrapers and a purple sky.

Though Frank Miller delivered a very New York City-influenced take on Gotham in The Dark Knight Returns, its sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, went in a completely different direction. Suddenly Gotham became a stark future wasteland bathed in surreal colors.

The Arkham video games finally realized the dream of being able to freely roam a detailed, three-dimensional depiction of Gotham at will. This Arkham City concept art shows a very Batman Begins-inspired take on Gotham, with the above-ground train system serving as a major focal point.

Arkham City limited gamers to a confined and abandoned section of Gotham, one that included mainly abandoned factories and smaller residential buildings rather than the massive skyscrapers of Gotham's downtown area.

Arkham Knight, however, opened up the entirety of Gotham, allowing players to explore every nook and cranny of the city and ascend its tallest skyscrapers. The game divided Gotham into three major islands — Founder's, Miagani and Bleake — each with their own distinctive architecture.

Lego Batman 2 offered a very different sort of interactive Gotham City, one designed to take full advantage of the blocky Lego aesthetic.

Beware the Batman presented a very stylized, noir-esque take on Gotham and its inhabitants, one made all the more unique because of the 3D animation. While reminiscent of Batman: The Animated Series in many ways, the show gravitated more towards greens than reds in its color scheme and backgrounds.

In the alternate reality of Flashpoint, Gotham City was given a very Las Vegas-inspired makeover, full of bright lights and the swankiest casinos in the DCU.

Wayne Tower is one of the major fixtures of the Gotham skyline. It's become common for artists to depict the tower in a way that both resembles a "W" and evokes the Bat symbol. It's as if Bruce Wayne is daring his city to make the connection between he and Batman.